Minds of Peace

This afternoon I attended the Minds of Peace Conference between a group of native Palestinians and Israelis. I am not going to sit here and lie to you by saying I chose to go or even previously wanted to. The conference was held in my classroom at the same time as my class so my professor required us to attend. However, I am glad she did. The conference was a lively debate between four Palestinians and four Israelis, who were sitting in the middle of the room no more than five feet across from each other.

It was day three of the talks so many subjects were previously discussed and you could tell that the eight individuals were starting to get under each others’ skin. Todays debate was over who should control Jerusalem. Currently, Jerusalem is controlled completely by Israel, and they would like to keep it that way, while Palestine claims the right to part of the land. Immediately after the presider opened up the floor, the bantering began. I have never seen individuals open up so whole heartedly about something. You could tell that this conflict meant a lot to each one of them.

The room was completely silent, not even a whisper was spoken while both parties argued. As I sat, I realized how important this issue is to not only the Israelis and Palestinians, but to the whole world. The area of land that they are arguing over is claimed to be the holy land of three of the major religions: Christianity, Muslim, and Judaism. Fighting has evolved in the region between these religions causing major tension between the governments. The debaters were worried that if issues could not be solved soon it would evolve into a World War III. WORLD WAR III!!! That would not be good for anyone. The United States are allies with Israel so if anything happened our troops would most likely be sent. I am happy that Fontbonne hosted this event. It opened my eyes and the eyes of all who were in attendance of how serious this issue is. It goes to show how important international news is. I see a lot more CNN in my future, as I am now going to make an effort to stay more informed about international politics and I believe you should keep informed too.

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Hi y'all! I am currently a grad student at Fontbonne, studying for my master's in health communications. I am an RD-in-training and hope to be a professional nutrition writer/ blogger after grad school. Check out my personal blog, The Wholey Trinity, and feel free leave your comments. I love a good conversation almost as much as a good cup o' coffee!

Hello, I'm Elizabeth but you can call me Lizzie. I am a natural-born St. Louis resident and a Vietnamese-American. My family is from Vietnam. I am an art major and currently a freshman. I hope to learn many things and become a great student for Fontbonne.

A Senior majoring in Speech-Language Pathology, Ian strives to focus on the things in life that often get over looked. He has four very different brothers and one beautiful successful sister. Farmer is a commuter who lives all over St. Louis due to his side job as a house sitter. When not watching houses, Ian lives in Chesterfield with his three little brothers and parents.